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Generative AI

Citing Generative AI

When should I cite AI-generated content?

Any time you use AI-generated content for an assignment, you'll need to provide attribution, just as you would with any other research source. Remember to check with your professor first about whether and how you are permitted to use AI for an assignment. 

Cite an AI tool any time you use content it has generated in your work, whether you're paraphrasing or directly including an image, an idea, data, or a quotation.

Acknowledge any and all uses of AI tools to complete the assignment. For example, if you used AI to generate an outline, to edit your writing, or to translate text, you need to include a note about that somewhere in your paper.

MLA

How do I cite AI-generated content in MLA Style?

General guidelines:

  • MLA doesn't consider AI models to be authors, so the citation on your Works Cited page will begin with the prompt you used when interacting with the AI model.
  • Your in-text citation will be a shortened version of the prompt. Make sure that this shortened version matches the beginning of the full citation on your Works Cited page.
  • If the AI model you used allows you to create a shareable link to the transcript of your interaction, use that as the URL for your citation. If that isn't an option, include the URL to access the AI model instead. 

Format:

"Include your prompt here" prompt. Name of AI model, version of AI model, Creator of Model, Day Month Year of chat, URL.

Examples:

Works Cited page:

“Describe the symbolism of the green light in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald” prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat.

In-text citation: ("Describe the symbolism")
Works Cited page:

“Pointillist painting of a sheep in a sunny field of blue flowers” prompt, DALL-E, version 2, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, labs.openai.com/.

In-text citation: ("Pointillist painting of a sheep")

For more information, see the MLA Style Center's recommendations for citing generative AI. 

APA

How do I cite AI-generated content in APA Style?

General Guidelines:

  • Describe how you used the AI tool in the Methods or Introduction section of your paper.
  • In your description, include the exact wording of the prompt that you used as well as the exact text of the AI response, if it is reasonably short.
  • For longer AI responses, put the full text of the interaction in an appendix and reference the appendix as part of your description of your use of the AI tool.

Reference format: 

Creator of AI Model. (Year of Model). Name of Model (Version of model) [Type or description of model]. URL

In-text citation format:

(Creator of AI Model, Year of Model)

Examples:

Reference:

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

In-text citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
Reference: 

Google. (2024). Gemini (2.0 Flash version) [Large multimodal model]. https://gemini.google.com/app

In-text citation: (Google, 2024)

For more information, see the APA Style Blog post "How to cite ChatGPT."

Chicago Style

How do I cite AI-generated content in Chicago Style?

General Guidelines:

  • Whenever possible, citations should be treated as you would a phone call or private conversation and only included in the text or in a footnote/endnote, not in a bibliography or reference list.
  • If possible, include the prompt or a description of the content in the body of your paper. Otherwise, include this information in the footnote/endnote. 
  • If you used multiple prompts during an interaction, the prompts can be summarized in your citation.
  • Treat the AI model as the author of the content and the creator of the AI model as the publisher.
  • Use a URL that leads to a publicly accessible transcript of the interaction.
  • If the content has been edited or adapted in any way, acknowledge this in the text or in a note. 

Cited in the text:

Include the name and version of the AI model, the date the content was generated, and the prompt or a description of the content.

Examples:
  • In response to the prompt, "Create a list of tools that are needed to fix a flat bicycle tire," on April 22, 2024, Gemini 2.0 generated the following list.
  • The following recipe for pizza dough was generated on December 9, 2023, by ChatGPT-3.5.

Notes format (prompt included in text):

  1. Text generated by AI Model Name and Version, Creator of AI Model, Date Generated, URL.  
Examples:
  • Text generated by ChatGPT-3.5, OpenAI, May 21, 2023, https://chat.openai.com/share/90b453584186s-0rsd-8sgr-bds5-14855642c15de105423.
  • Text generated by Gemini 2.0, Google, April 17, 2024, https://g.co/gemini/share/335b8f9c79bf.

Notes format (prompt not included in text):

  1. Response to "Prompt," AI Model Name and Version, Creator of AI Model, Date Generated, URL.  
Examples:
  1. Response to "Create a picture of a wombat in the style of Van Gogh," Gemini 2.0, Google, April 22, 2024, https://g.co/gemini/share/335b8f9c79bf.
  2. Response to “Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients,” ChatGPT-3.5, OpenAI, March 7, 2023, edited for style and accuracy.

Bibliography/reference list format:

Creator of AI Model. Response to "Prompt." AI Model and Version, Date Generated. URL.

Examples:

Google. Response to "Create a picture of a wombat in the style of Van Gogh." Gemini 2.0, April 22, 2024. https://g.co/gemini/share/335b8f9c79bf.

Open AI. Response to “Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients.” ChatGPT-3.5, March 7, 2023. https://chat.openai.com/share/90b453584186s-0rsd-8sgr-bds5-14855642c15de105423.